The Early Life of an Application
Throughout the week, we received thousands of applications and materials for our December 1 merit scholarship deadline. Curious about how all these materials magically show up in each student’s digital file, I decided to do some investigating into our processing procedures. As a result, I bring you: The Early Life of an Application.
Most–if not all–pieces of your application were probably submitted online. However, online submission is not as fast as you might expect. In a world where we can order a pair of shoes from Amazon and have them on our doorstep the next day, it can be hard to comprehend that admission documents take time to process. After you hit submit on your Common App, USC supplements, and SlideRoom, those digital documents get sent to us overnight to download. It takes about a day for us to have your application on file. Not to worry–we account for this delay and consider the submission date when you click send rather than when we download it. While the date shown on your portal will be the processing date rather than the received date, if you click submit by 11:59 PM in your time zone on 12/1, your application is considered for the scholarship deadline. Test scores may take even longer to get to us. If you send your scores through the College Board or ACT, it can take 2-3 weeks for us to receive and process them. For this reason, we are flexible about when we receive your scores, but please note that if you indicated that you want us to consider your scores, your application cannot be read until we have them.
It is also possible that some of your materials, such as your transcripts or recommendation letters, were sent through the mail. Though we receive less mail than we used to (gotta love the internet), there is still a substantial volume to sort through and organize. Our hard working processing staff work diligently at different processing stations, each assigned to a different task. There are several steps a mailed document goes through before it reaches its final destination: an applicant’s file.
The first stop? Document preparation. Materials are kept in order by the date they were received. The document preparers go through document after document, stamping important information such as the date received or if it’s an official document. If an applicant sends in a bunch of different documents together, we try to keep these materials together throughout the process.
In order for materials to be successfully indexed and uploaded into the image viewing system on our computers, they need to be coded with the student’s ID number and name. This is an important step as it often requires searching to find and confirm identifying information to ensure that the right papers get into the right applicant’s file.
Finally, the paper documents are scanned. A staff member oversees this process to verify that all the documents are scanned properly and are legible on a computer screen. All of this hard work happens behind the scenes, but it’s crucial as we read tens of thousands of applications from students all over the world.
How else does information get to us? Well, it’s possible that you or your counselor emailed a representative at USC to share something that wasn’t in the original application or to make a necessary addition/adjustment. We are able to upload/input this information into your file so that we can consider it during the application review.
Wondering if we received something? You can check your USC applicant portal! We do not list all materials (e.g., we don’t have a checklist item for recommendations and only transfer students have a checklist item for transcripts) but we recommend taking a look to confirm that your application, supplements, test scores (if you’re sending them), etc. are on file. We will also email you about any missing items, so keep an eye on that inbox. A complete application is a happy application!
Written by: Kelsey K. Bradshaw Carroll, Associate Director, USC Office of Admission